Woman who claimed she was sexually assaulted by another Marine also found guilty of attempted adultery

CAMP PENDLETON 
A female Marine accused of cheating on her husband and lying to investigators about it was convicted Wednesday in a military court of obstructing justice and the lesser charge of attempted adultery.

The woman, a staff sergeant assigned to Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 39 at Camp Pendleton, had sex in a hotel room last year with another Marine who worked in her building.

The defendant said she was too intoxicated after several hours of drinking to give her consent to sex. She pleaded not guilty. The woman is not being named because she reported the encounter as a sexual assault.

The other Marine, a staff sergeant she met at work, said the sex was consensual, she did not appear incapacitated and he did not know she was married. He was investigated for adultery and sexual assault but was cleared of wrongdoing. He is not being named because he has not been charged with a crime.

The defendant’s husband of 17 years, a Marine chief warrant officer, sparked the adultery investigation when he reported suspicion of cheating to his wife’s commanders.

He later learned that his wife, with whom he has two children, was incapacitated by alcohol — as she used as her legal defense after the legal chief informed her she would face a special court martial.

“By whatever means necessary, (she) was going to save her skin. When backed into a corner, she played the ultimate trump card by claiming sexual assault,” Maj. Doug Hatch said in closing arguments.

The case isn’t about sexual assault, he said, “what this case is about is obstruction of justice.”

During opening arguments Monday, the woman’s defense counsel, Capt. Rafiel Warfield, conceded that she lied to investigators about going to the hotel with the Marine. She did so to avoid the trauma of recounting what happened to her and because she had no confidence that he would be punished, he said.

But “certain things you can’t make up,” Warfield said, such as the testimony of the government’s chief toxicologist. “It was not consensual. It wasn’t romantic. It wasn’t an affair. It was rape,” Warfield said.

The military judge, Lt. Col. Leon Francis, did not explain his verdict. Since there was no dispute that the couple had sex, his ruling on adultery seemed to allow for doubt about whether she was able to consent. If so, the other Marine, a 32-year-old staff sergeant and divorced father of two young children, could face another investigation into the allegation of sexual assault.

On Wednesday, the military’s chief toxicologist testified that the woman’s blood alcohol content may have been about 0.4 percent, enough to make an average person unconscious and potentially in a coma.

He based his calculation on information the judge provided him from the trial, including a bar receipt and testimony of Marines who were with her that night indicating the 93-pound, 4-foot 10-inch woman drank two large glasses of beer, three Midori Sour cocktails and two glasses of red wine over a five-hour period.

The defense argument was undercut, however, by security footage from a BevMo store.

In the video, she walks inside without stumbling or assistance, pays for two bottles of wine, cracks a joke, and walks out.